Not all businesses are downtown

Laura Estes has been an avid quilter since the early 1980s. Because she couldn't always find what she wanted in applique quilt patterns, she began designing her own quilts. One thing lead to another and Laura's Sage Country Quilts became an official business in 1994.

The company started with three designs and increased to nine by the fall of 1995 when Estes and her husband, Pat, attended their first International Quilt Market in Houston, Texas. With the addition of new patterns each year, there are currently forty five designs in the line, as well as a Block of the Month series. About a year ago, Annie's Publishing asked Estes about writing a book with patterns featuring ruching, pintuck and pleated embellishment. The book is called, "How to Make Pintucks, Pleats and Ruching."

Quilting stencils and Piecing Pals Coin Ruching Guides were added to the product line in 1997, when Laura and Pat became acquainted with Aaron and Debby Bell, owners of Quilting Creations International. Both businesses' booths were located across from each other at the Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis, Minn., and the Bells took note of the interesting designs Estes had quilted in her quilt samples. They asked her to submit design ideas and the results were well received with customers asking for more. Currently, there are 344 stencils in the EL Designs by Laura stencil line.

Estes' line of patterns, quilting stencils and Coin Ruching Guides are marketed worldwide, and can be found in many local and online shops. Most of the quilt pattern designs feature applique. Gardens, flowers, hearts and cats play starring roles in most of the designs. Doodle art from high school days and a German heritage also influence her design choices. Sage Country Christmas Tree, the first pattern produced has remained a strong seller for 20 years, a rarity in the quilting world.

Estes enjoys teaching quilting skills and speaking to quilt guilds and other organizations on the subject of creating and caring for heirloom quilts. She takes great pleasure in seeing quilting students progress in their quilting knowledge and ability as they create quilts uniquely their own. She has an unconventional method of hand quilting that is faster than traditional hand quilting and easier on hands and wrists. Hand Quilting Laura's Way is a popular class she teaches at shops and guilds.

Manager of Operations, Punkin, the Estes family cat, makes sure the business runs smoothly, even if a bit hairy at times, inspecting all outgoing shipments and checking in supply shipments. Everything in boxes comes under his supervision. Pattern covers are printed at Palmer Printing in Waite Park, Minn. and the pattern text and diagrams are printed at A&H Printing in Moses Lake. Palmer Printing produces the best color pattern covers in the industry and bright clear covers are very important in product presentation.

Pat does the bookkeeping for the business, helps set up the booth displays at the wholesale quilt markets necessary to attend in order to attract wholesale distributors for their product line. The business website, http://www.laurassage countryquilts.com, features photos and descriptions of the quilt patterns, quilting tips, links to shops and distributors that carry the line and the complete listing of stencils and Coin Ruching Guides at Quilting Creations International. Estes maintains a Facebook page to keep fans up to date on classes and events, and more sporadically, a blog of quilting techniques at http://laurassagecountryquilts. com/blog.

Most weekdays find her, assisted by Punkin, filling customer pattern orders first, then the remainder of the day is spent on creating new designs and making the quilt samples. The company offers trunk shows to shops and quilt guilds, necessitating making several samples of each quilt. Several local expert quilters help with making quilt samples. Laura has high standards for workmanship as the samples represent the company. Samples are the face the public sees. Locally, you can see many of the samples at Experience Quilts!

Estes enjoys working from home and having the flexibilty to be able to schedule community activities, summer gardening and any travel she and Pat might want to do in addition to traveling to quilt markets. She states that you have to be good at scheduling and sticking to the plan in order to not be sidetracked by demands on your time, because folks don't remember you are working.

When the business was started, Estes made the decision to be a wholesale-only company, letting distributors and shops handle the selling. She does not vend at quilt shows or craft fairs, nor does she sell on line. It would not be fair to her customers to sell them product and then show up at the same events selling the same thing. Contact information is included in each quilt pattern so the retail buyer can call or email if they have questions about the pattern. Estes' father, the late Bill Steinhaus advised, "If you are going to have a business, be proud of it, put your name on it and let people know how to reach you, if needed."